A Demon's Dark Embrace: An Elite Guards Novel (24 page)

“We would survive,” he replied with confidence. “We would easily take over this world and make it our new home, but we want ours. That’s the difference, Danu; we will survive at any cost. You, on the other hand,” he said leaving it open as he shrugged his shoulders. “Leave the little Witch alone; who I fuck and who I fall in love with is not up to you. I don’t know what’s happening between us, but I am willing to see where it goes. That’s my choice.”

“I could easily flick my fingers and kill her,” she said as she narrowed her eyes on him. “But I fear you will have to learn life’s lesson on your own. Lesson number one, your pretty little redhead just stole your car because she can’t wait to be rid of you. Lesson number two, she seduced you enough to get you to let your guard down, and it worked so well that you forgot there’s a box inside the car that one certain Demon will kill to get,” she said with a whisper filled with self-confidence. “Maybe he’ll find her first, or maybe I will. Tick tock, baby,” she said with a nasty laugh as she snapped her fingers and disappeared.

“Bitch!” he roared as he spun and sifted to the spot he’d left Olivia in, only to find her and the Land Rover gone.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Olivia sped onto the highway and didn’t stop until she had put over a hundred miles between herself and the Demon. Her heart ached with every mile she drove and she considered going back, but then she would remind herself over and over again that he was her captor and there would be no future with him.

Captor, meaning he’d taken her by force, played kinky fuckery games with her, which, if she was being honest, wasn’t such a bad thing. Well, if she was being honest, she’d enjoyed it far more than she was willing to admit. But, freedom! No more being locked in a cell, no more being confined to a bedroom. No more worrying that she was teetering on the brink of losing her heart to a Demon. She felt as if she was channeling William Wallace and even now should be painting her face blue as she drove each mile to freedom.

Twenty minutes later the tears came, and with them the stark, reminder that she had absolutely nowhere to go and no one she could safely approach without alerting Cyrus, or the people he worked with that she still lived. Apart from Alden, everyone she’d considered her family had died at the Spokane Guild.

The one small comfort she had, if Ristan was telling her the truth—she prayed to Hecate that he was—was that the children she had hidden in the music room were alive and would be sent to their parents. She still wondered what would happen to the little ones who didn’t have parents. The ones that weren’t lucky enough to have an advocate to fight for them. She’d been one of those children, and she hoped that Synthia and Adam would look out for those children and do the right thing where they were concerned. 

She silently wiped away the tears and turned the music on as she drove past nameless towns and country houses, through the sprawling, snow-covered countryside. She passed cows, horses and other animals as she made her way back to I-90 and onto the interstate, which ended up taking her back to Spokane and the Guild.

Huddled in the blankets she’d found in the Land Rover, she waited across the street from the ruins of the Guild until midnight had passed, and then the dawn bloomed on the horizon. It was serene, but as she fought the courage to get out of the safety of the SUV, she considered the facts.

She had nowhere else to go. Sad, since this wasn’t much of anything anymore. It was a pile of rubble that sat above extensive catacombs that ran underneath most of the city.

She had no one. Not even her cat, since it was left behind at the mansion in the mountains. At least if Ristan kicked it out, she knew Kit would survive, unless she got eaten by a bear, which would suck.

She had nothing. Not even a spare change of clothing should she slip and fall in the mud. She could just imagine the things that Demon had packed in that bag, and was willing to bet nothing in it would be suitable to wear in public. His tastes in clothes were more in the range of kinky to downright inappropriate. Although, she had looked okay in some of them, considering she never would have worn anything like those clothes if he hadn’t glamoured them on her.

She was homeless. She was hungry, and the chill from outside was beginning to soak through to her bones.

She blew out the breath she hadn’t realized she was holding and eyed the rubble as she exited the Land Rover, leaving the keys in the vehicle since technically she couldn’t keep it. She didn’t own it. A very sexy, probably very angry Demon did. She stood in the early morning haze and watched as the sun rose before she finally moved toward the Guild.

She had to go in through the back wall, climbing over piles of stones, and carefully made her way down broken, teetering stairs as she headed into one of the secret entrances to the library and catacombs. She wasn’t even sure why she’d come back here. Probably because it was familiar, not to mention the Land Rover wasn’t going to go anywhere else right now. The little gas light was on and she didn’t have a penny to her name. If she tried to pull money from her bank, it would alert those within the Guild that she was still alive, and she preferred them to believe she had been killed by her captor or taken to Faery. Everyone knew that Humans didn’t return from there.

Her foot slipped and she hit the rocky floor of the tunnel hard; her palms burned as she pushed herself off the floor and stood back up. Her arm stung and as she could feel blood as it slid down the back of her forearm where she’d banged her elbow on the stair as she fell.

“Why the hell can’t I sift? That shit is so much easier,” she screamed at the empty room.

She moved into the soot-covered library and stood in silence, as if she was holding a silent vigil in it. Most of the library had collapsed at the entrance to the catacombs. All that she could see from this side was charred remains and soot. She reached a breaking point and screamed as loud as she could. Birds flew from within, trying to escape the Banshee wails. She moved to one of the desks that was half burned and half undamaged and kicked it.

“Ouch!” she shouted as she jumped around trying to hold her wounded foot. “Why me!?” she asked the sky that peeped through the ruined ceiling. “Why? I wasn’t bad, was I? Was I some major bitch in a past life, so you give me this one? Leave me abandoned and alone without a single person to care about me? Why me?” she whispered brokenly as she slid to the floor. “I don’t even kill spiders.”

She sat in the soot and dust, hugging her knees with her back against the desk.

“You don’t even kill spiders?” Ristan teased as he stepped around one of the pillars in the room.

She jumped and then groaned. “I’m not going to get close enough to one to kill it, so no.”

He laughed and, uncaring about his own attire, he sat on the floor beside her. “You stole my car and left me in the middle of fucking nowheresville.”

“I did,” she said as she rested her head on his shoulder. “I needed a moment of freedom.”

“Is that why you were shouting freedom in my Land Rover for twenty minutes, or my personal favorite moment was when you were singing at the top of your lungs to
Fight Song
?” he countered as he reached for her abraded palm and healed it before he gently did the same with the other, as well as her elbow.

“I like that song,” she whispered softly. “I have nothing left,” she surprised herself and him by saying. “I’ve got nowhere to go, and no one would even notice if I disappeared.” He’d been in the car with her the entire time! Mixed with the emotions that she was dealing with, and now knowing that she’d never been actually free of him, she expelled a breath and shook her head.

“That’s not true,” he said.

“It is; it’s sad, but it’s true.”

“I noticed you disappeared,” he clarified with a gentle grin.

Her eyes moved to him and she rolled them. “Of course you did, I stole your car, which is like a felony.”

“So I should find some handcuffs and a paddle and show you what it’s like to be really punished?” he asked as he lifted a brow, as if he was intrigued with the idea.

“I mean it,” she said. “This was my home, and I had nothing else. No backup plan. The Guild always wanted us to cleave to the safety of the Guild, although Marie used to encourage us to think beyond the Guild, to a life outside. I thought I had more time. I thought I’d save up and move out someday, maybe plan a life and find a beefy Enforcer who had an obsession for dorky librarians who’d never been kissed.”

“You’re what, Olivia, twenty?” he asked as he rested his head back against the desk.

“Twenty-one,” she said, as if the one year meant something to him, which it didn’t.

“Most Humans don’t have shit figured out by twenty-one, the exception being which foods they like, and even that much is iffy. Had the Guild not fallen, you probably would have ended up stuck here way past your forties, married to some Warlock who went after younger girls when he went through his midlife chaos.”

“Crisis—and no, I’d have married a handsome one who only had eyes for me, who enjoyed cooking and pampering me. He would have wanted a big family and he’d be perfect. He’d be my mate in love and life,” she stated with dreamy enthusiasm.

“Lay off the books, damn. Who the hell did you plan on marrying? A male version of Mary Poppins?” he asked with a sideways glance.

She laughed and turned to look at him. “I guess my expectations were a little high. I just wanted to have a family and love them as they would love me. It sucks being alone, ya know? I had the Guild, but they’re not the same. I just never really fit in. Marie told me that when I was born, the Elders of Salem thought that my father was one of the more powerful Warlocks assigned to the Salem Guild. No one knows for sure because my mother died having me and didn’t tell anyone who he was and he didn’t come forward to claim me when she died. It put me at a bit of a disadvantage when I came here.

“Anyway, once I was old enough to understand what was going on around me, I could see that other than being a girl, I didn’t have much in common with anyone here. Mary used to tease me about boys and how they viewed me more as a little sister and less like someone who they could date, and the men in my books were way better than the boys I was growing up with. I wanted to fit in, and I wanted to be normal. It just didn’t happen for me. I couldn’t even access my magic the way the other kids could. I have it, but I can’t channel it the same way so I had to find ways to make it work so I could blend in and not attract too much attention. Fin, one of the other librarians, could use his to send archives back without leaving his seat, but mine was weaker. I could return them quickly enough, and, of course, doing it manually ensured that it was without mistakes. I did create a system that worked, and had a few cheats thrown in so that I was as quick as the others. I didn’t party like the others did, though; that was my own fault because I was shyer than the others and I didn’t feel comfortable joining in. I just wanted someone who that made me feel normal.”

“You are normal, Olivia. You are as normal as someone who grew up inside a place like this could be. I get that you were sheltered within the Guild, and raised to follow orders, which makes you very naïve, but I know you have dreams, and you’re a good person. Other than stealing my car, you’ve probably never even broken the law.”

“I forgot to pay for a coffee once,” she admitted, and he smiled.

“And what did you do after you discovered you hadn’t paid?” he asked as he looked around the room.

“I went back and paid for the damn coffee. I was so unnoticeable, that the guy at the counter said he’d never seen me before and refused to take my money.”

“Ouch,” he said. “I doubt he failed to notice you; either he was trying to give a pretty girl a free cup of coffee, or it was because you were wearing one of those drab skirts that did nothing to show off those sexy-as-fuck legs. Still, if he failed to see the beauty on the outside, I know he couldn’t have missed the beauty you radiate from within.”

“Gosh, is this where you compliment me and then,” she stopped as she held her thumb up to her neck and dragged it over her throat dramatically, “off me?”

He laughed. “I should spank you; I didn’t enjoy you impulsively ditching me, but I did enjoy your driving.”

“Wait, back up. You…” She paused as she replayed what he’d said earlier. “I was watching for you; how the hell?”

“I think somewhere between screaming freedom, and crying your pretty little eyes out, you missed me sifting in and I was at a loss for the weirdness of the situation. I was also pretty sure you wanted some alone time.”

“I needed some time alone to think. A lot has happened, and I needed time to process it,” she admitted.

“And did you?” he asked carefully.

“Sort of. I am starting to think I have a serious case of Stockholm syndrome.”

“Stockholm what? What the hell is that?” he asked, giving her a curious look.

“It’s a psychological condition where a hostage or a kidnap victim forms an unnatural attachment to their captor,” she said with a lopsided grin as he grimaced.

“Let me guess; you think you have this because you like me and I turned out not to be the world’s biggest asshole? Ever consider that maybe I’m just addictive and habit forming?”

She rolled her eyes and elbowed him. “Nope. Now I’m starting to think you just suck.”

“No, but you do it pretty well,” he said as he pulled her close to him and kissed her cheek. “We have somewhere to be, and we need to get cleaned up. Vlad advised me to dress accordingly; and by dress, he meant nice evening wear, black tie and all of that. I can think of a few good things that tie could be used for afterwards, though.”

“Where are we going?” she asked curiously as he helped her up. 

“To the Gates of Hell to meet a Demon about a box.”

Chapter Thirty-Five

Once they were back in the Land Rover, he glamoured them both into clean clothing that would be more suitable for where they were going, or at least that was what he told her. He was hot in just a basic t-shirt and jeans, but decked out in an Armani suit with a crisp white dress shirt, silver tie, and matching cufflinks? Oh, Lord help her, she couldn’t keep her eyes off of him.

He’d dressed her in a little black dress that had long sleeves, a sweetheart neckline, and the back was left open in a dramatic low drape to mid-back. The short skirt had high slits up to her hips which thankfully made it more comfortable to sit in. Her shoes were black, peep-toe stiletto pumps, and he’d even created tiny crystal roses that embellished the top of them and softly sparkled at her in the dim interior lighting of the SUV. She had complained about her hair, and he’d wiggled his sexy fingers and her hair had been swept to the side and placed in a loosely braided bun on the side of her head. Soft tendrils of hair had been left free to frame her face, giving her a sensual look. 

It wasn’t something she would have done herself, but paired with the red lipstick and heavy kohl eyeliner, she had to admit that overall, the combination made her look hot. From what she could see of herself in the tiny mirror, she looked like someone else. Of course, she’d never worn much makeup other than her normal dab of mascara and lip gloss, but she felt more beautiful tonight than she ever had before.

She wasn’t worried until they pulled up to a nightclub that seemed to materialize in the middle of nowhere. He sifted out of the car and opened her door before she could do it herself. He accepted her hand as she lowered herself from the Land Rover, kissing the inside of her palm gently before he released it. Her heart clenched at the courtly gesture and she couldn’t help but smile at him.

“Club Chaos?” she questioned as loud music sounded from within. “All sinners welcome?” she whispered as the door opened and a couple walked out with matching smiles.

“It’s an inside joke of the owner’s,” Ristan explained as he rounded to the open hatch and pulled out the bag with the box in it.

“That thing shouldn’t be given to anyone,” she said as she took an involuntary step backwards.

Ristan shook his head as he closed the hatch and held out his other hand for her. She accepted it begrudgingly, her eyes on the box-shaped bag. She had never been able to get close to it without feeling sick to her stomach, and that just made the curiosity of what was inside burn brighter for her.

She had never hidden her curiosity about the many sacred objects housed at the Guild, which the Elders had indulged to a certain degree. Some objects had been off-limits to touch or examine. She’d once been asked once to hold an ancient tome, which had given her the chills for an entire week afterwards.

They approached the door and she stumbled on the heels, but Ristan quickly held her up and gave her a curious look.

“I’m sorry,” she said quietly. “This is a little out of my comfort zone.”

“You mean you never left your bedroom or those damn books long enough to go out to a nightclub?” he teased with a carefree smile.

“I didn’t have a lot of friends,” she admitted.

He paused at that and turned to look at her. “It might be better that you weren’t very close to those who died at the Guild,” he replied solemnly.

“It doesn’t make it easier that we weren’t good friends. It actually makes me feel worse. I had a hand in what happened. I have to live with it; even if they weren’t close to me, Ristan, they were my people.”

He didn’t get a chance to answer her, as the wide club doors were opened by a huge, intimidating man with an actual man-bun. It normally was a turn-off when a man had his hair up in a bun, but this guy was seriously pulling it off.  He was heavily covered in tattoos up his arms and neck, and his eyes were a vibrant crystal blue.

“What the fuck do you want?” he growled, his eyes raking over Olivia and then Ristan.

“To speak to your boss,” Ristan said without showing an ounce of fear, unlike Olivia who wanted to bolt back to the safety of the car.

“Is that so?” the hulking man asked as he snickered. “You got some balls, Demon. We thought for sure you’d send it in the mail.”

“Snail mail sucks and they lose half the shit they get paid to deliver. So, is he here or not?”

“He’s busy,” the man said, his eyes sliding back to Olivia and the low neckline of her dress. “In his office upstairs,” he finished. “Go on up, if you dare.”

Olivia perked up at that.
If you dare?
Was this guy serious?

Ristan placed his hand on the small of her back and pushed her past the man guarding the doors. Inside it looked like a lot of the clubs she’d seen in magazines or described in books, with gyrating bodies that pushed against each other as they danced to the beat of the music.

The room was large; black lights outlined the dance floor and colorful lights swirled and bathed the dancers, while the bar was lit up well enough for the bartender to pour drinks without mixing up the bottles. Not that it would have mattered if it hadn’t been, since the bar itself was glowing with bluish green light from beneath the mounted glass that topped the bar. There was also a wall of glowing lights spanned from one end of the bar to the other.

“Wow,” she shouted to be heard over the loud music.

“Darklands is better,” he shouted back as he moved her easily through the crowded room. It wasn’t until they reached a door that had the words ‘Sinners Lounge’ on it that he paused. He turned his head in her direction, smiling wickedly. “You’re going to see some freaky shit when we go through these doors. There are rules, Olivia. One, you belong to me,” he reminded her as he tugged lightly on the torque around her neck. “That should keep most away; however, if anyone should ask, I am your master, your lover, and no one else is to touch you. Two, don’t make eye contact with the men; it’s considered a challenge to most. Three, don’t leave my fucking side for any reason. We get in and we get out, understand?”

“What the hell is behind that door?” she whispered breathlessly as his rules replayed through her mind.

“I’ll show you,” he said with a wicked grin before he pushed the doors open and pulled her gently through them.

Pulsating, sensual music and muffled moans of multiple people exploded around them the moment he pushed the door open, and the sound of it closing behind her was deafening. It was as if they had left the safety of the real world—and she immediately wanted to turn and leave.

She halted, unsure if she wanted to continue past the entrance. “What is this place?” she whispered. She jumped as the sound of a whip meeting flesh along with a woman’s moans of pleasure erupted from only a few yards away.

“This would be an exclusive, invite-only sex club. One of the most notorious ones on the West Coast of America,” he explained with a lopsided smile.

“I need to go,” she said as she shook her head, unsure of what the hell they were doing here. She listened to the moans and the whip as it snapped against the flesh again. Oh shit, she needed to run, quickly.

“I have you; no one here will touch you, Olivia. You’re mine.”

“I don’t belong here,” she whispered vehemently.

“Every woman deserves to be set free from the confined cage society tries to lock her into. Come; see what it is before you just reject it.”

He didn’t give her time to argue as he grabbed her hand and pulled her around the corner and into a room where the whip was meeting flesh, and the subtle moans of pleasure grew louder. A crowd surrounded a woman as a huge hulking man wielded the whip.

She was naked and secured with rope that made it impossible for her do anything other than stand on her tiptoes as she was whipped from behind. Welts crisscrossed her back, butt and thighs yet the skin didn’t look as if it was broken. Bile rose in the back of Olivia’s throat, and she pushed it down reminding herself that she’d been tied up once, and she’d enjoyed it. A lot more than she ever thought she would.

Olivia forced herself to remain stoic and ignore the people who encouraged the man to continue the woman’s punishment. She counted each lash, and as the crowd shouted, she watched as he dropped the whip and moved towards her, his hand gripping the woman’s hair harshly as he cupped her pussy with his other hand.

Olivia couldn’t imagine being placed on exhibit as this woman was, and yet she looked as if she wanted this.

“She’s willing?” Olivia asked in a barely audible voice.

“She’s more than willing,” a woman with bright red hair said as she turned back to answer Olivia. “She’s chosen to serve him, and most of us would beg on our knees to be served by him. Look at his cock,” the woman said as her eyes moved back to the naked male, who did have a hugely erect cock that he was currently rubbing between the woman’s legs. The woman moaned and did her best to bend her hips for his touch.

Olivia angled her head a bit to find Ristan watching them, his hand subtly rubbing her exposed leg through the side slit in her skirt. Her body responded to him as the sound of flesh meeting flesh resonated in time with the tantric music. Her eyes moved back as the couple fucked in front of the crowd, but as quickly as he had pushed inside of her, he pulled out as yet another woman was added to the scene, this one carried by four men and placed before the man.

This one was beautiful, and had blonde hair and green eyes. She was younger than the other woman; Olivia figured this woman was at least as old as she was. Her arms were secured behind her back, and as Olivia watched, the male switched partners. He moved to the new girl, easily picking her up as the crowd gave him their approval. He hoisted her onto a raised platform, forcing her to balance on it as he gripped her hair, and, without waiting, pushed his cock into her body as she screamed.

The crowd gave murmurs of appreciation as he took her from behind, and as Olivia watched, others moved in behind him, some moving to the forgotten woman, each helping bring her down from the ropes, and before she was even fully allowed to stand, two men were buried inside her body.

She cried out as if it was a gift, and Olivia turned to look at people in the crowded room. Some were pleasuring themselves as they watched as others took what the person beside them offered. More couples and threesomes were making use of the comfortable-looking loungers that ringed the room. Olivia felt her cheeks grow heated from the scene before her, and before her heart could burst from her chest, Ristan held out his hand for her.

“We can go now,” he said softly, waiting for her to gather her scattered wits before he led her from the room and down another hallway.

“That wasn’t right,” she whispered through a dry mouth.

“They wanted it, and if they didn’t, they wouldn’t be here,” he said quietly, reminding himself as to how naïve she really was. “Not everything with sex is black and white; there’s a lot of gray area. Some like to behave badly, so they will be punished or they like being an exhibitionist. Some women need it to get off, like those women out there. To them it’s not degrading, it’s freedom. It’s freedom to be who they really are without being judged for it, or hiding it. Too many people in this world spend their lives thinking they are sick and try to stamp down and hide their desires, when in reality, everyone has their own kinks. Not everyone’s ideal sex is monogamous, or simple. At least those here have embraced what works for them and no one gets hurt unless they ask for it.” He grinned at his little play on words as she shook her head slightly.

“I don’t understand it, I get that. But I would never do that, nor would I put myself on display for others to see,” she said out loud, needing him to know where she stood on it. “I prefer a closed door, and if that makes me a prude, so be it.” 

“Most have their reasons for what they do, and some just don’t give a shit what others think. Every woman in that crowd, except for you, would have jumped to be in those women’s places. They didn’t come here to just hang out, they came here to fuck. It’s a sex club, not a mall, Olivia, and by Fae standards, that was very tame.” He gave her a warm, indulgent smile. The scene out there, by Human standards, had been wild. For a sheltered girl like Olivia, it was probably the wildest thing she’d ever encountered.

“I’m not sure why the ownership is so insistent on the dress code if they’re just planning on ripping each other’s clothes off anyway,” she mused thoughtfully, and heard a soft chuckle from Ristan at her observation.

He gripped the bag tighter as he walked her up a flight of stairs and through a hallway lined with dark windows. She occasionally turned her head to stare at her own reflection and wondered just who it was who stared back at her. She had seen a lot over the last few days, and she’d never considered herself judgmental. Never. This went way beyond anything she could have ever imagined and she wasn’t sure if it was the shock of watching people be ‘punished,’ live and up close like that while an entire crowd had witnessed it, or how she’d felt watching it.

Ristan turned them towards a large door and knocked on it as she chewed her bottom lip nervously. She wasn’t even sure why she was so nervous. The only thing she knew with certainty, was the further down the hall they’d gone, the more uneasy her nerves had gotten.

“Enter,” a male’s voice said. Ristan twisted the knob, and Olivia felt the uneasiness of her nerves spike to screaming levels.